Interview: Seven Pounds Director Gabriele Muccino

With the upcoming release of Will Smith's Seven Pounds this weekend, I present my interview with Italian filmmaker Gabriele Muccino, who made his American directorial debut with The Pursuit of Happyness. It's impressive to see that Muccino, who speaks in broken English with a thick Italian accent, was able to make two fantastic films in Hollywood. He's obviously a talented filmmaker and I was quite excited to hear about how this collaboration all came together. Read on for my rather captivating interview with Muccino, who talks about everything from Seven Pounds to why Hollywood is usually "very plain."

While I won't say Seven Pounds is as spectacular as The Pursuit of Happyness, I will admit that I'm very fond of Muccino's filmmaking style. His ability to work with Will Smith and create very emotional scenes is unmatched and with Seven Pounds it shows yet again. If you were at all captivated by the trailer, then definitely catch this, as there is a lot more to discover. And pardon Muccino's rather rough English.

What has interested you in coming to America and to Hollywood to make movies here?

Gabriele Muccino: The biggest difference with the movies here and when you do movies in your own country, is the amount of the crowd you're going to talk to. So if you want to be a movie director, as I wanted to be when I was a child, because you want to be a storyteller, and you want to give to others your point of view about life, then you want the biggest crowd you can get. And there's no bigger crowd than the one you can get making movies with big movie stars here in Hollywood. So the idea came pretty natural. What was not natural or predictable or even thinkable was that this would have happened in my life. Because when you grow up in your own country and you do movies, even successfully in your own country, but don't speak English -- at the very most, as a tourist, you have to be realistic and know that to come here and offer your talent as a movie director, that definitely cannot be enough, because there are many others which are more skilled and culturally more "right" for telling American stories than you.

But my case has been pretty curious, I would say, pretty unique. And the fact that Will Smith, by different circumstances, discovered my movies and thought I was different from any other director, at least in the way I portrayed human emotions, made this journey start and continue. So I met with him. He sent me a very not Hollywood story. I mean, it wasn't the typical Hollywood story. Although there was a happy ending, that journey into the hell of the American economy, and the American society, wasn't the typical studio picture. It was coming more from an indie mentality. But more than that it was coming from a tradition we had in Italy in the post-war time with movies that we call the neo-realist. And one, of course, was called Bicycle Thieves, which was a giant masterpiece and had a lot of similarities with Pursuit of Happiness. And that made me feel that the vision that Will had wasn't -- yes, it was definitely insane and not completely or even partially understandable from my side, but at least there was a sense, maybe, a logic.

So I came, I started working on Pursuit of Happyness, trying to overcome the huge barriers -- cultural barriers, and language barriers, which I had to understand and to overcome in order to be in control of that story on that set with that movie star with that studio, and all the fears that you can imagine in that environment. But I managed to do everything I wanted to do exactly in the way I felt was right. And the strength and the bravery, or the insanity, to do things the way I did was coming from the strong confidence in the fact that if things wouldn't have gone right, I would've gone back to Italy, where I would have kept doing my Italian movies, which would have made me happy and wealthy. So I felt I am here and I'm doing all my best to do what I think is right, and know what I think is right. I really did Pursuit of Happyness under the protection of Will, who trusted me, and allowed me to do what I felt was right to do. Sometimes I did just that, and didn't really understand what idea I was trying to pursue, but end up with a movie, which ended up being a big hit and got Will nominated for an Oscar, and now it opened my career in America and earned me a higher level of trust from producers and studios.

Doing this second movie has been even easier and even smoother. The first movie was already smooth, but the second one was even smoother. I felt that there was even more of a sense of, "Let him alone. He knows what he's doing." Which, in this system, in this industry, I consider myself enormously lucky to have, because directors in this day, they get controlled, they get fired, they get judged. And when they're not understood, they just get imprisoned into telling stories that aren't theirs anymore, but are the executives'. And this is a very frustrating way to make movies and it doesn't help bring out original ideas, original styles, original vision, points of view, or visually something new. This is why Hollywood tends to be very plain.

Do you want to challenge yourself more here in America, or do you want to challenge yourself more doing films in Italy?

Muccino: I think the best way to work would be doing something here, and then something there, bouncing back and forth. If I keep doing something -- when I did my fourth movie (called Ricordati di me) in Italy, I felt it was to secure myself. I felt I knew what I was doing, and everything was under control. And that's, to me, the beginning of the end, when you start to know too well what you're doing, you start to be almost bored by what you're doing. And that's death of creativity. So when I came here and I had to start from scratch with a brand new adventure, doing something where I barely knew what people were talking about in conversations, it was so challenging, so frightening, that I was scared like hell, and I had to reinvent my talents and to push as much as I could all of my energy.

Now that I've done another movie, I'm ready to do even a third or a fourth American movie, but I am kind of thinking that I want to make a movie in Italy right away before next spring just to refresh, again, and to shake up things. And then be ready again to come back here and do another movie. I think this will give me the strength and bravery to do in both countries something which is not poisoned by the expectations that you are raising with previous work.

That makes a lot of sense. To move into Seven Pounds, I was curious whether there were a lot of changes that were made while you were in production? Whether their were changes with the script or the story, in terms of how much time he spends with Woody Harrelson, or how much time he spends with different characters before he ends up spending the rest of his time with Rosario Dawson. Were there changes like that?

Muccino: No, actually, the script has been changed enough, but the major changes happened in the rehearsals, I would say. We rehearsed for five weeks with the actors. We spent a lot of time just talking and just reading and changing lines, adding lines, deleting scenes, adding scenes. And sometimes finding some hole in the script, and adding some gem to the story. So it has been a real workshop on the script, which has been enormously precious. This allowed us to be on a set with a very, very solid structure and script.

Since then, the changes we did make were definitely not during the production, but a little bit during the editing. Because the biggest question mark from the beginning was: "How much can we give away? How much we can give to let the people who come and follow this story, which is so mysterious and cryptic at the beginning?" So we played a little bit with the audience. Through three or four or five test screenings, and through those tests, we understood better what kind of balance the movie should have. But there was a moment where we already left out two scenes with Barry Pepper and then he gained again all the footage that he shot. He also had an extra scene that we cut, because it wasn't pushing the movie forward. There was an extra character. A woman who was willing to have an abortion -- she's an unbelievable actress, unbelievable scenes, very powerful, but it wasn't really pushing the movie forward. So we end up with a big sacrifice and cut the scene. So there has been a lot going on during the editing. But the structure has been pretty much the same.

So was it a lot longer at one point?

Muccino: It was two hours, fifteen minutes.

Then you cut it down a lot?

Muccino: Yeah. Now we're at one hour, fifty-five minutes. So we definitely cut a lot of stuff.

Do you have any films in your life that have really inspired you or are your all-time favorites?

Muccino: Yes, I think, Oliver Stone. The last of the Vietnam trilogy. I mean, visually, it was very inspiring. I love Woody Allen, for example. I love Robert Altman. And I love Bob Fosse -- Lenny, All that Jazz -- visually stunning.

Since you mentioned 2001, does that mean we'll see you do a sci-fi film one day?

Muccino: It depends. If it's a psychological sci-fi like Kubrick did, yeah. I would pursue the challenge, yes. But there must be something psychologically engaging.

Thank you to Gabriele Muccino and Sony Pictures for arranging this interview. Seven Pounds arrives in theaters this weekend and is another fine achievement for Muccino and Will Smith.

Great interview Alex!
I would love to see the unedited movie, or most of all, the first cut that according to my friend that saw it at an early screening was way more bizarre than the theatrical version...
I saw Seven Pounds a few days ago and loved it. Can't belive all the negative reviews it's getting... It's definatly one of Smith's best movies, and one of his strongest preformances... Sure it has flaws, the scene at the end - SPOILER: with all the chidren singing was a little over the top, - END SPOILER:
but other than that it was a great movie with a great ending...
Alex, do you think the movie is worth more than the 31% it has at rottentomatoes.com at the moment?

The film was STILL too long. He should have cut another 15-20 minutes from it.
Vic

Skamps

Seven Pounds was phenomenal. the negativity around it is nothing but ignorance and a pen. Not only Will Smiths best role yet but also,having seen many of the nominees, is one of the best films of the year.
9/10

Ignorance, right. I'm sorry but the "twist" was telegraphed WAY early in the film - and once I knew what it was I had to sit through another 20 minutes of exposition to get to the punch line when I already knew what it would be.
Or maybe you liked it so much because you didn't figure out what was going to happen early on?
Vic

martin

i loved it. go and see for yourself

samy

Muccino directed one of my fav movies some years ago, "The last kiss"...then "Pursuit of happyness" arrived and omg I loved it to pieces...now this one, which i'm dying to see...the combination Smith/Gabriele is so much WIN in my book.

Darunia

Will smith should ditch this dude.
I know he wants quality material, but Seven Pounds ain't it. Neither was Pursuit of Happiness. I know the director might make Will Smith believe that he's doing some of the wall shit, but he isn't.
Seven Pounds felt like a simple, lite, saturday afternoon kind of movie, trying to pull some Bergman shit. It was ridiculous, because it wasn't well done.

freestyLes

i still don't know what this movie is about

Skamps

I did see the twist, that is the beauty of the film, it is there to see from the beginning if you pay attention but they way in which it pans out is what makes it beautiful

@Skamps
See that's where you and I disagree - I thought they beat the damned think to death. After a while I wanted to shout at the screen: "OK! I GET IT!"
Vic

Tony

Just watched "Seven Pounds" last night and it was Amazing. It just popped off the scree to me. If I had a top three of 2008, "Seven Pounds" would be number one. But I still must wait for "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button". Overall its a 10/10 for me. Such a Beautifully Directed Film.

Peloquin

I watched Frost/Nixon, Gran Torino, Milk, and Seven Pounds in a row this past weekend and Seven Pounds was by far the worst of the four. I quite enjoyed Pursuit of Happyness, but this was way too slow and predictable. The dialogue wasn't engaging and there were too many characters for me to fall in love with any of them. It just seemed like this film had no direction in which it wanted to head so it was just a bunch of incoherent dialogue. I don't blame the acting though, which was very A list, but the writing and directing structure were definitely lacking.
Would anyone argue with me that they liked this better than Milk, Frost/Nixon, or Gran Torino? I thought each of those films were highly superior to this one. I hope Penn or Eastwood get the Oscar over Smith (I'd throw Rourke in there too, but haven't seen The Wrestler yet).

rachel

"Seven pounds" was so incredibly written and acted, the plot line was original and I love love love how it twisted and turned until the end. I was bawling at the end, and this deserves kudos from here till next Wednesday. Many peole disagree and rebut because they don't choose to let the real world go and let a mysterious and intelligently autistic film take hold. Thank you for such a powerful and intriguing movie- congratulations.

Renata de Angelis

I fail to understand why all adverts and on paper or TV fail to mention the name of the director.
Is it so difficult to spell? Cut and paste could help!!